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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2008 2:06:13 GMT
only participate if you have purchased and recieved yours.
feel free to elaborate on any points.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2008 22:46:39 GMT
I'm getting one of these tomorrow, i'll let everyone know how it is, i've heard a few people having some major problems with theirs, but usually the people who post about it are the ones with problems the rest are content and won't bother. At least that's how i see it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2008 7:48:43 GMT
thanks man, im having so much trouble with bloody customs, im going to heartbroken if theres a flaw
but yeah i know what you mean about people giving feedback on bad experiences before good experiences
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2008 0:58:57 GMT
My one vote is up there, "could be a bit better".
The only reason why i didn't give it a "just what i expected" is because it had a bit of rust on the shinogi-ji and mune, i had to use a file to remove it and to prevent it from spreading, i'll have to then reburnish the area as well.
But everything else is great, the kissaki geometry is actually traditionally done, the reason why the kissaki mune doesn't flare out is only because the shinogi is too low, if the shinogi were higher, then it would get wider at that point and to save weight the mune would have to be thinner than the shinogi, thus causing the flare at the kissaki. However since this blade has a fairly low shinogi it doesn't need the flare to have a strong kissaki. It is traditionally done however, even the polish direction on the kissaki is traditional, it should go from ha-mune because the kissaki is finished differently than the rest of the blade at the end of the polishing process. The visible ridge on all nihon-to is really only because of the polishing direction, they do have a genuine geometric change in direction, but if it wasn't polished in contrast it wouldn't be visible because the change is so small. If there was no change in surface direction then the kissaki would have to be completely dull.
The tsuka maki has hishigame which i'm surprised to see, the end knot looks like some care was taken in doing, however in my book it's not a tight wrap, it should hold up for cutting, but it's unacceptable to me, that's why i'm redoing it. The tsuka shape is very nice, follows the sori of the blade. The sam'e however, despite being real, looks very low quality and i'm just going to carve a whole new tsuka because of it. Anyone not as picky about tsuka as me will find it very nice and probably won't do all the stuff i am, for a $700 sword that's being sold for $300 the tsuka is pretty fantastic.
The saya is kuro-ishime, not kuro-ro like the one Paul Southren reviewed. I like the ishime look much better so that's actually a big plus to me. The saya is also not super thick and wide like some low end production swords, it's a nice shape, not too thin not too thick. I also remember someone saying that they got a synthetic sageo, but mine is silk, clearly silk. Silk does sometimes look like a synthetic material but i don't get why they would have some swords with synthetic sageo and some with silk sageo, me thinks someone may be mistaken.
The kodogu are all very nice, even the menuki were more than i expected, very detailed and nicely finished for the price. The tsuba is very nice i can't find any real imperfections in the casting and the black finish is very nice, i think it was mentioned to being powder coated, so it should be durable too. The habaki is fit properly and is nice and tight. All of the fittings are very tight and don't budge.
The blade is probably the nicest part of the whole assembly, very nice and smooth lines all along it's length, the kissaki like mentioned earlier is very nicely finished, the hamon is very visible although gunome isn't my thing it looks very nice on it.
The single thing wrong with mine were the 2 small bits of rust, a rust remover probably could have done the job much better than a file but i don't have any rust remover and i don't mind doing the burnishing. It's a good thing the rust was only on the burnished areas and not the ji or hamon.
Overall i'm very pleased with it and the extra tsuka work that i'm doing isn't neccesary i just know that i can make a better tsuka and do a much better maki in silk.
It's 57% off the retail price so if you haven't gotten one i recommend grabbing one up soon before they're gone, this really is a great deal.
I also forgot to mention, it came with a dark blue sword bag.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2008 4:08:03 GMT
It's my first Shinken, soooo... I wouldn't call it poor or perfect, but for me, personally, the 1601 is a Golden mean between those two extremes
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Post by Dave(utilityslave) on Nov 27, 2008 23:06:19 GMT
Mine is great! Not flashy but all business. Looks and feels solid. Great buy---thanks Paul and Sonny
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2008 5:26:30 GMT
The one I recieved was basically perfect exept that most of the fittings were somewhat to very lose. However, the blade itself and the balance of the blade felt absolutly perfect to me.
The blade seemed bent to me at first, but then I relized that it was because the Tsuba (which was lose) was off a bit. A further examination revealed a flawless blade in terms of shape straitness and polish. There was a small spot where a bubble had formed in the blade that was close to the surface but that would only require some extra care while cleaning.
Ithink that the one I recieved would be pretty much perfectif someone reattached the fittings and hid the part of the tsuka that didin't get covered buy either the same or ito.
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